My experience with the term "service"..

Flight delays, it happens! But do you have an adequate customer service to manage it????

Last year we decided to travel to an (almost) neighboring country, a destination that has become particularly popular with the Lebanese for its proximity, attractions and the absence of visa formalities. The smart thing to do in this case was to travel with the national carrier of the country of destination, especially since we were going to take internal flights.

Although there were multiple choices for our internal flight we decided –conservatively- to give ourselves a 3 hours window between the internal flight and the flight back to Beirut. After all, why stress over flight connections!? We were on vacation and we decided to give ourselves plenty of time to check the duty free area for some last shopping.

Upon arrival to the airport we discovered that our internal flight was delayed for a full hour. A good thing that we were cautious in our flight connections, we thought at first… The 1 hour delay became gradually a 2 hour delay: the tension was starting to mount up, with the growing stress of missing the flight back to Beirut. So we went to the carrier’s counter to explain our situation. ”no problem, the other flight will probably be late as well” they said! ‘Probably’ doesn’t cut it, so we remained in the dark. After the below incident I knew why they were sure of the delay in what seemed to be standard procedure with the national airline!

Since we were in the ‘probably’ mode, we started counting the minutes, in the airport lounge, in the plane…. Upon arrival, we started a useless speedy run towards our connecting terminal, to discover that our flight back home, amongst many others, was also delayed by another 45 minutes. Man! Are we lucky or what! Especially when we were looking at the poor passengers going to Abu Dhabi trying to explain -in vain- to the airport police that they will be missing their flight, to which the police seemed indifferent and even aggressive refusing to listen and asking them strictly to stay in line! Under the indifferent eyes of some officials of the national carrier who did not feel the need to intervene! That was weird! And they actually missed their flight!

You know when your flight is late, you tend to choose a seat facing the monitor and keep on staring at it all the time, which will turn to become an obsessive compulsive behavior: we were like a stock broker watching his investments fading away live on the monitor… within 10 minutes, our 45 minutes delay changed into a 2 hours delay, then 3!!! Every while the monitor flashed again and again to announce more bad news….

As the ‘announced’ delay approached the 3 hours and a half, we have had enough; it seemed it was never ending. So we start asking around, searching for someone from the carrier staff to help us. After 10 full minutes someone told us it was past midnight and they probably already left, but you can go to the VIP lounge and ask the stewards.

We went to the national carrier VIP lounge to get what it seems to be a typical VIP treatment; I learned that afterwards when I checked all the bad reviews on the carrier, we walked in two “ladies” who were sitting quietly at the counter, one was staring at her PC and the other filing some documents. “Good evening” we said. No one answered! and here my blood pressure was raising, “Good evening, helloooo!” we said again, as the ‘filing lady’ nodded back to us.

As we started explaining the situation, the “lady” staring at the PC, facing me directly didn’t even bother to look back and the other one”, just answered: ”there is no floor manager. I’m not responsible.”As if she was from another airline. So at this point we said bluntly:” But you are the only people from your airline in the whole airport! what is your problem???” isn’t anyone in charge in this ridiculous airline? We had to endure delay after delay and no one seems to care… no one is trying to do something, it is two in the morning, we are tired and no one seems to be handling this problem…

The “lady” facing the PC – I insist on putting “lady” between quotes since her behavior was far from being ladylike- put her hand on her ears and did a gesture with her face to tell us that she was annoyed!!!!! At this point, I told her: the money from my ticket is paying your salary…you will never enter the EU and that I hate this airline!!

We left at 4 am and landed back home after a 12 hour trip in between airports. I can assure you, my dear readers, that I am far from being the only one that faced a problem with this particular carrier, delays are standard procedure with them. I am considered lucky as I read afterwards, that it took one passenger 3 days to get from London to Singapore with this carrier!

However, what is really shocking in this situation is not the flight delay, as I am sure many of you have had far worse experiences. This national carrier, with global ambitions, has a marketing budget that exceeds the budget of a whole country; it features in its ads the entire football team of England!!! How can they spend so much on ads when they would not care to handle their –recurrent- flight delays in their national airport!

Does it ring a bell? Waiting for your comments!

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12 Responses

You know whats so special about your writings?! It makes us live the moment. I literally so myself mesmerized in front of the monitor in countless airports looking for a number (time) that serves as a life vest. I love your descriptive words and metaphors.

But this time, it is easy who you are talking about.. You WISH that they NEVER GET INTO THE EU.. and a country close to LEBANON and DOES NOT NEED A VISA.. mmm.. the last hint alone makes the choices three: Syria, Jordan and Turkey.. and guess who wants to get to the EU?! Does it ring a bell? 🙂

I bet you Jo the whole service in this country is the same.. it’s not only about their national carrier..the people there are a problem by themsleves with their mean, rude and fanatic characters… Let them start speak English or French first then consider entering the EU !!

Dan i know exactly where your frustration comes from! lolll they are rude indeed and what bothers me even more is despite their rudeness tourism is booming in this country!!! i think they have a huge international tourism campaign… 3abel Lebanon

I’ve had my worst experience with a “Royal” Arab airline that decided in mid-flight that one of their equipment was faulty and needed to be repaired which meant returning back to our departure airport (we had already been in the air for 90 minutes) and upon landing, we were forced to remain on the plane until the repairs were completed (it took 60 minutes).

In case you were wondering what the faulty equipment was, it was their weather radar. Apparently it was raining at our destination and they needed it.

Jad first of all i am very honored that you read my blog… i am a big fan of yours i practically read it every day!!! you are amazing thx thx thx when i saw your comment i was so happy yesterday! i have to stop now right? 😉

now seriously!!!! going back to the departure airport??? that is freaky in addition remaining on the plane that means no AC!!!

Talk about customer service, i think they’re missing a point, how can they keep on promoting their airline and forgetting about the basics: first they need to listen to their customers comments and than deal with their complaints!

Take my advice an go post your blog on their website and wait for their reaction, only people like you can help them into having more human contacts with their customers.

Hi Peter
actually i did post a negative review in their review page or something really you need to check it they have at least like hundreds of bad review!!!
thx a lot for reading it gives me a great pleasure knowing that you will be reading continuously
P.S: as discussed you need to create your blog you have so much things to say!!!